Over the years, worldwide consideration has been given to two problems. The first is the universal service problem—the desirability of providing telephone or other communication service to those who cannot afford to pay and maintain telephone or other communications service. The second problem is that of immediate and interoperable public safety communications.
Networks are significantly more valuable as more users are able to use the network. However, the lack of universal service is a barrier to economic participation by those lacking service. Societal benefits of having even the poorest people on the public telecommunications network are so significant that the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996 makes special provisions for universal service as part of the Act, including mechanisms to implement subsidized activities. In addition to the Act, many states have life-line services which subsidize telecommunications services for users who meet certain low income tests. Emergency 911 services and prospective on-demand broadband 911 services desire free participation of callers into networks that might otherwise require fees.
In the case of public safety communications, emergency service authorities continue to face the problem of interoperable voice communications as different radio communications spectrum is used to support different public safety voice systems. Different units of government and other public entities often have difficulty communicating with each other by voice within one local jurisdiction, e.g., a county, as well as with peers in adjoining counties, states, across a country, or beyond national boundaries.
At the time of this filing, many of these same public safety radios do not interoperably support data or video. The interoperability problem has been continually addressed by organizations such as the National Task Force on Interoperability of the United States, an association with members that include: the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International City/County Management Association, the National Associations of Counties, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, the National Association of State Telecommunications Directors, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Criminal Justice Association, the Emergency Management Association, the National Governors Association, the National League of Cities, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, the National Sheriffs' Association, the Council of State Governments, and the United States Conference of Mayors.
There are two primary interoperability problems. The first problem is when users of various wireless narrowband radio systems need to speak to others using another wireless narrowband radio of another frequency. The second problem is when users of a wireless narrowband radio system need to communicate with a user that does not have access to that same system, but does have access to another form of communication such as broadband, another incompatible narrowband system, or a traditional phone system.
In many emergency services scenarios, a crisis may develop that was not anticipated. If communications are to be effective in resolving the crises, they need to be timely and often immediate. Further, the communications must be interoperable between all of these parties, even among those who could not be anticipated as needing to be included in the network. Typically, these unanticipated participants do not have the time to procure and deploy additional equipment. Thus, a method to connect users of disparate systems is desired.
Since many users may be added during the crisis, it may be difficult to arrange for payments of funds or the establishment of credit necessary for the users to participate in these emergency services and networks in a timely manner. In some cases, the users may not be able to pay at all, even though it may be in the best interest of the community. Failing to provide for the immediate participation of unanticipated parties without the timely ability to prove their means to pay for the services can have very serious consequences.
Internationally, there are continued universal service problems as nations such as the Philippines, China, and the republics of the former Soviet Union try to entice investment in their respective telecommunications infrastructures. In these emerging markets, the number of telecommunications lines per capita is much smaller. Because market-based solutions to the universal service problem in these markets are lacking, capital for network infrastructure is limited. Providing emergency services in these environments is even more difficult and all the more necessary. Linking the economic and social benefits of sponsors and users by these means can provide more than just incremental service to users. This linkage can provide substantial infrastructure as well as services to users since it provides substantial services and benefits to sponsors who are then motivated to provide infrastructure and services for users who can not afford to pay for those benefits. Service providers, projecting the involvement of sponsors, can make it possible for new infrastructure and services to be deployed that would not otherwise be justified by user demand and user ability to pay.
History is replete with stories of radio systems that cannot communicate with each other. What initially seem like simple solutions fail in the field. For example, during Desert Storm in the early 1990s, the some countries used radios that were incompatible with those of other military services despite expectations of cooperation. Some European troops were not only unable to communicate with others, they interfered with US radio systems. Police, fire, and EMS personnel often have difficulties communicating in the field.
Many efforts have been made to develop common standards for interoperability of radio systems in recent decades. Unfortunately, these approaches provide limited utility, very limited capability for external system interconnection, and are generally not backward compatible with older analog radio systems. The interoperability standards also do not address integration of radio systems with a wide variety of voice communication system not based on the use of radio. What is needed is an automated system that supports on-demand interconnection between many forms of voice communication systems regardless of their technology.
Many radio systems are now based on digital technology. Digitization has greatly aided the application of security features and improved system immunity to radio frequency interference. However, the integration of unlike radio systems has become much more complex. Converting protocols from one system's syntax to the other is not always possible. Multiple conversions from one protocol to another can degrade signal and voice quality. Furthermore, sharing security keys can present insurmountable management problems. Another problem of integrating systems is the current requirement for human intervention. To interconnect two systems normally requires someone to perform a “patch” whereby the signals of two systems are interconnected, assuming there are no other technical difficulties. This process places a burden on the operators of those systems that can be unacceptably disruptive. The manual process is also limited to a simple connection with conferencing capability limited to the number of successfully manually patched base stations participating at the same time.